


A boy's best friend

by Steangine



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-03-07
Packaged: 2018-03-16 19:25:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3500057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steangine/pseuds/Steangine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything happened because Nigou run away and Kuroko followed him. (pre-slash)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A boy's best friend

**Author's Note:**

> Nigou ships AoKuro. This fic has no sense but Aomine and Kuroko need some fluff and more love.

Nobody in Seirin knew what Nigou did during their training. They were too busy surviving Riko’s hellish exercises to care about was happening even two meters from them.  
Kuroko was used to pat Nigou on the head and greeted him both before and after the training; the dog was always there to wait for him. Near the benches, near the exit door, most of the times near a ball. And whenever he noticed Kuroko he barked and happily pounced on him.

“Nigou?”

Kuroko looked around.

Riko was talking with Hyuuga while Koganei was observing them. Izuki and Tsuchida were talking to Furihata, Kawahara and Fukuda. Mitobe was taking away the balls together with —

“Kagami-kun.”

The bouncing sound took over the gym and everyone turned in the same moment towards Kagami surrounded by the balls he was holding up until Kuroko appeared behind him.

“Kuroko! What the hell were you thinking?! Try to stand out more!”

“This would have a negative influence on my way of playing.”

“That’s not the problem here!”

It was just another of their usual quarrels on the same problem  —  Kagami being scared by Kuroko’s ghostly presence. Riko and Hyuuga sighed at the same time, Tsuchida smiled but nobody else paid more attention to them than a single look.

“Kagami-kun. Have you seen Nigou?”

“No.”

“He should be around here somewhere.”

“Of course he is.”

Kagami quietly passed the balls to Mitobe. His head started itching but he didn’t mind until he felt that Kuroko’s stare on him was too intense to ignore.

“Stop staring at me!”

Even if he should have been used to it, Kuroko sometimes put on such an empty expression that it gave him the chills.

“Kagami-kun, could you help me find him?”

“Why are you so worried? Probably he is in the lockers.”

“Are you sure?”

“How could I know? Go check by yourself.”

Mitobe silently tried to calm them down, but just moving his hands and giving them a worried look wasn’t enough.

“Mitobe says you shouldn’t argue!” Koganei yelled from the opposite side of the gym and everyone wondered how he could be so sure even when he was far away from Mitobe.

“But we are not arguing.” Kagami wrinkled. “Right Kuro-oi!” He looked at his side but Kuroko wasn’t there anymore. “Where did he go now?”

Kuroko didn’t lose time. He went straight to the lockers and called out loud Nigou as he opened the door. Even if there was no reply he tried to look around but the dog wasn’t there.

He started to worry.

“Nigou.”

Usually Nigou wandered around the gym, he played with Riko while they were almost dying during the training or slept near his favorite ball. So Kuroko had no idea why Nigou suddenly disappeared like that.  
Just with his training clothes on he went out and trembled; the cold wind increased since that morning.

“Nigou!”

A bark echoed in the yard.  
An happy relax invaded Kuroko’s tense body and his stomach released the tension that had begun to rise at the thought that Nigou truly escaped somewhere.  
The dog barked again, as he was calling him, and Kuroko followed his voice. It was too cold to wear just those clothes but he just had to take Nigou and come back. Nothing more than a minute.

“Nigou. Why are you here?”

Nigou was heavily breathing right in front of the school’s gates.

“Did you chase another dog?”

Nigou barked again. And in a moment all Kuroko could see was his wagging tail getting smaller and smaller as he run away along the street.

“Nigou!”

Kuroko’s body moved on his own before his mind could translate the will of getting Nigou back into a thought.

“Nigou stop!”

It was odd.  
Nigou had never disobeyed him before. Sometimes, when they played, he liked to avoid Kuroko’s touch but only to run at full speed into his hug right after.  
That time it was different. Nigou run far enough to put some distance between him and Kuroko before stopping and staring at the boy; then, as soon as Kuroko was so near he could catch him, the tag game began again.

The cold air flowing into Kuroko’s lungs felt like icy spikes. Moreover the efforts from the training had already made his body quite numb beyond the pain of his muscles.

Kuroko gave up few meters after the Majiba. He couldn’t run anymore or even stand. The ground was hard and it would have been unbearable to rest on it but to Kuroko it was like a blessing when he let himself fell down.  
A cheerful couple passed near his body lying on the cold sidewalk but didn’t notice him.

“Tetsu!”

He probably was so tired that he started hearing voices.

“Tetsu get up!”

A particular insistent voice.

“I’m getting up.”

“You say that but you aren’t moving at all!”

Those words were quite nostalgic. Kuroko had a reminiscence: he collapsed on the floor of the gym at Teikou -well, he collapsed more than once during Middle School- and despite Akashi’s warning, everyone got near to check he was alright.

__

_ “Kurokocchi! You need help!” _

_ “Ne Kuro-chin, you should eat something.” _

_ “Murasakibara, that wouldn’t work! Kuroko, you should take care of yourself.” _

_ “Give him a break! Oi Tetsu, you can stand up again, can’t you?” _

 

“Oi Tetsu, you can stand up, right?”

Kuroko raised his head.  
Aomine was so worried that he didn’t look real and Kuroko wondered if he fainted somewhere and was just dreaming.

“Yes, I’m getting up.”

Nigou was near him and Kuroko couldn’t see anything besides his black fur. He felt his wet nose touching his face while sniffing him.

“I’m okay, Nigou.”

This time he tried to move. His body was heavy but his pride was strong enough to bear the burden of his own weigh and Kuroko stood on his legs again.

“Aomine-kun.”

It seemed Kuroko realized that it was Aomine who spoke to him just in the moment he saw him directly. And he looked so surprised that Aomine worried.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course I am.”

“You almost passed out in a street Tetsu!”

Kuroko slowly gained again enough self-consciousness to make linear and clever thoughts. He literally escaped from school to catch Nigou and nobody from Seirin knew it; moreover he just had his training clothes on and it was too cold to bear it without a coat. He realized it and trembled. But the thing that bothered him the most was —

“Aomine-kun, don’t you have training today?”

“Today the coach gave us the day off.”

Kuroko silently looked at him without showing any emotion.

“I swear it! Ask Satsuki if you don’t trust me!”

“I believe you.”

Kuroko sneezed.

“You went out without a coat. Have you gone crazy, Tetsu?”

“Nigou run away and I followed him.”

Aomine looked at the dog

“Ah. You are — “ He smiled delighted. “Hey, I didn’t know you were Tetsu’s dog. Well, I shouldn’t be surprised after all...”

“Do you know Nigou?”

“Is that his name?”

“Koganei senpai called him Tetsuya Nigou. Nigou for short.”

“Really? So your name too is Tetsu, huh?”

There was something beautiful in the way Aomine took Nigou and their nose touched. Everything was so natural that Kuroko could just smile. And he sneezed again.

Aomine took off his coat and offered it to Kuroko.

“Here.”

“Huh?”

“I would be angry if you were to be sick and skip your training tomorrow!”

“But — “

“You are all sweaty. You’ll surely catch a cold.”

Kuroko looked carefully at him. He didn’t want to observe his gestures but that habit was so carved into him that Kuroko read everything Aomine was unconsciously giving to him: the little frown in the middle of his forehead, his lips slightly contracted and his eyes that wandered nervously away.  
Back then Aomine would have looked at him straight into his eyes with a bright smile. The thought made Kuroko sad and he couldn’t hide it.  
Aomine opened his mouth because he was quite sure he wanted to know what was the shadow on Kuroko’s face; but he closed it because he didn’t know how to approach him — no, he knew it but he didn’t feel like he had the right to do it anymore. So he just caressed Nigou on the head; the dog gave them a sad look.

“You may catch a cold as well without the coat.”

“I won’t. My immune system works better than yours.”

Those words pierced Kuroko into his pride. “…I’ll humbly accept.”

He took the coat and both tried to look at each other.  
Those few seconds of silence seemed longer than they actually were and Aomine startled as Kuroko spoke.

“I must go now.”

Kuroko put on the coat. It was hot and big, Aomine’s shoulders were wider than his; he became a bit jealous.

“Or else coach will beat me.”

He grabbed Nigou and didn’t mind his tiny whine. Kuroko’s hands touched Aomine’s. Just for a second. They were warm.

“She seems bothersome like Satsuki.”

“Not at all. She will use the boston crab hold on me again if they realize I went away. Momoi-san is gentler.”

And Kuroko left, leaving behind a vague sense of shock into Aomine.

 

The following day Nigou didn’t escape. He waited right near Aomine’s coat for the training to end and when Kuroko got into the lockers with the team, he took a sleeve on his mouth. Nigou stepped on the coat with impatience to show it better to Kuroko.

“I know Nigou. Now we are going.”

It was Aomine’s coat and the only one who didn’t ask Kuroko about how he came to have it was Kagami — Kuroko was grateful to him for this.

In January Kuroko never got home while there was still light due to the basketball club and his duties in the school library but he never rushed home like most of the people: since nobody noticed him, nobody could bother him in any possible way.  
However that evening he was almost running with Nigou hidden into his own coat and Aomine’s coat folded into a bag  — if he were lucky enough the stain of Nigou’s drool would have dried before he arrived to Touou Gakuen. If he weren’t lucky Aomine probably wouldn’t have noticed it anyway.

Of course the drool didn’t dry. And of course Aomine didn’t check.

“Thank you for yesterday, Aomine-kun.”

Kuroko was always too kind and too formal even with his friends. That part of him didn’t change at all and Aomine felt quite relieved.

“It was nothing… Tetsu, the coat you’re wearing is huge. Did you take Kagami’s?”

“No, it’s mine.”

As Kuroko unzipped the coat, Nigou’s fluffy head popped out happily. Aomine was surprised.

“Aomine-kun, do you have something to do now?”

“Mh, not really.”

“Then would you like to go to Majiba with me?”

Kuroko was almost sure that he sounded natural and that Aomine didn’t notice how he talked in a single breath and how his face was getting hot little by little. Almost sure.

“Well… why not?” He didn’t seem sure.

“If you have homework to do — “

“No. No, I’ll borrow them from Satsuki.” Aomine erased every trace of uncertainty from his voice. “Let’s go.”

Kuroko felt sorry for Momoi. She was always on the first line to help out Aomine, especiallywhen it was about his school marks, and taking care of somebody like him wasn’t an easy task.

“You should thank her.”

That nice suggestion came from Kuroko’s heart’s content. Yet, when they arrived at Majiba, Kuroko forgot about Momoi. He also forgot about everything else which wasn’t Aomine who was sitting in front of him and playing with Nigou.  
The dog was trying to stand on his rear paws to reach more of Aomine’s face and show him his affection.

“Hey hey, you are pretty lively, aren’t you?”

He laughed and let Nigou lick his face.

Kuroko hid his smile behind the vanilla shake. Suddenly a hamburger hit him on the head and fell over his legs.

“Aomine-kun.” He was pissed off.

“You still have bad reflexes, Tetsu.”

“I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Try to eat more. I’m pretty sure Satsuki eats more than you.”

“I’m fine. I consume less energy than you. This means I’ll survive longer than you in case of a natural disaster.”

“What does this mean now?! I was talking about Satsuki!”

Kuroko didn’t reply. “Thank you very much.”

The hamburger was warm and tasty. The same taste of three years ago when he first met Aomine.

“Aomine-kun.”

“What?”

“You look better now.”

“Better?”

“Yes, better.” Kurokopointed at his own forehead. “Before you had wrinkles here. You always looked angry.”

“I didn’t look angry.”

“You did.”

Aomine avoided the embarrassment concentrating his efforts on petting Nigou’s head.

“We used to come here often.” Kuroko continued.

“Yes.”

“It was fine.”

“It was.”

Kuroko ate another bite of the hamburger. He didn’t remember it was so difficult talking to Aomine; last time was easier but last time was too far in time. The conversation was getting nowhere.

“This week…” Aomine started out of nowhere. “…we trained so hard I thought we were going to die. Everything started after Satsuki went out with your coach. What does she make you do?”

“Different things, it depends.”

“Man, training wasn’t so harsh back in middle school.”

“You just lost the hang of it.”

“Probably…”

Kuroko smiled. “You seem less bored now.”

“Bored?”

“Yes. You were bored and so you became a boring person.”

“Hey! A bored person isn’t boring.”

“But a constant bored person is.”

“Ugh.”

Aomine got comfort by stroking more of Nigou’s fur.

“They finished the works at the basketball court near my home.”

“Really?”

Kuroko nodded. “Yes. I would like to play with everyone there.”

His voice faded away. Kuroko didn’t add anything but his intentions were clear and Aomine, who knew him the best, couldn’t have missed his silent message.

“We can do it.” He agreed and as he thought once again about it, the idea looked attractive. “This could be fun.”

Aomine smiled. The happy and naïve smile who disappeared into the depth of loneliness was shining on his face; less bright than before and softened by his pride but it was there again.  
Kuroko felt the need to smile and cry. He was happy and sad at the same time and he didn’t know how to call those emotions he was trying to hide.

“I would like to play alongside with you again.”

The words escaped from his mouth before he could stop them.

“I mean — “

“Sometimes I miss your passes, Tetsu.”

Both looked at each other before flushing.

“Because when it was you I didn’t even have to think about it and the ball was in my hands in the very moment I needed it. Now it’s more difficult.”

“You are the one who must adapt himself a bit more.”

“Yeah… this sucks.” But he was smiling. “Yet having you as a rival is quite interesting. You know me really well so I have to change my mind a bit.”

Kuroko monkeyed around with the empty glass. “Momoi-san made you notice this, right?”

“Do you really trust me that little?” Aomine looked at the window. “Yes, she did.”

And as he was touching Nigou’s back, the dog leaped down and rushed towards the door. He touched it with a paw and looked at them. Then he got back and jumped on Kuroko’s legs.

“Did I do something wrong?” Aomine was worried.

“No. He just wants to take a stroll.”

“It’s late now. Even if it’s you, you shouldn’t wander alone, Tetsu.”

“Nigou wants you to come with us.”

“Eh? How can you say that?”

“I know Nigou very well.”

Kuroko looked serious and Aomine wanted to believe he was just kidding. However there was something funny in the way Kuroko behaved with Nigou, something Aomine just sensed without a rational explanation but that made him want to smile. He restrained that hidden desire and shrugged.

“Well, I’m tired. I want to go to bed.”

Aomine ate the last hamburger all at once but when he raised his head he almost chocked: Nigou was on Kuroko’s head and both were giving him the same sad look.

It took Aomine a great effort to swallow the big mouthful.

“You have the same eyes! Don’t look at me like that!”

Aomine drank what remained of his soft drink and repeated to himself that he needed sleep and couldn’t slack off anymore. It pissed him off but Satsuki was right: Kagami still had more stamina than him.

“Seriously Tetsu. You are the first one who wants me to train, aren’t you?”

“But I’d also want us to come back home together.”

“…you weren’t so spoiled before.”

“Before, we used to come back home together.”

Kuroko blurted out and his ear became reddish. He took the tray before suddenly putting it down again; he threw the empty glass and the dirty paper of the hamburger into the bin and then put on the coat.

That coat was huge and Nigou hid under it, with only his head out, was a cute view. Probably Satsuki would have died if she happened to see it. Aomine felt lucky he could witness it. And shook his head  — because Nigou was cute, not Tetsu. Nigou, he repeated in his mind.

“Okay, okay.” Aomine thought it was really hot inside Majiba. Did they raise the heat system all of a sudden?

The cold coming from outside was quite refreshing and Aomine groaned when the guys who had just entered closed the door.

“Okay what, Aomine-kun?”

Aomine didn’t know if Tetsu stopped in front of the door to check Nigou because he really had to or because he just wanted to give him those seconds he used to change his mind. In either case he was grateful.

“Let’s go home, Tetsu.”

 

 

They walked slowly.

Sometimes Nigou’s head popped out to watch the surroundings and he waited for Aomine to stroke him before getting back into Kuroko’s warmth.

“Next week Kaijou is having a match against Yousen.”

“Really? So it’s Kise against Murasakibara.” Aomine frowned. “It sounds strange. They’ve never been close. Even during trainings Kise never went straight against Murasakibara.”

“They didn’t even when Midorima-kun and Murasakibara-kun started quarreling.”

“I remember that.” Aomine became more interested. “We teamed up with Kise and managed to defeat them.”

“Then you started to quarrel with Kise about who had to receive that passage.”

“You didn’t do it on purpose, did you?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Really…?”

It was odd talking again playfully as they used to do. Odd, nostalgic and truly beautiful. Kuroko had difficulties to restrain his smile. Aomine was already smiling.

“I think I’ll go watch it. Kise-kun asked me and Kagami-kun. Did he ask you and Momoi-san too?”

“Yes. I still have to decide if I’ll go.”

But Aomine in his mind already knew the answer.

“By the way, if Kise can copy your shoot probably Murasakibara will have a harsh time blocking it.”

“Mh, probably they have already found a way to counter it.” Kuroko seemed calm. “Actually I’m pretty sure everybody got an idea on how to block it.”

“Ah, yeah?”

Aomine remembered Satsuki saying something about Tetsu to the coach. He had never thought about it again and he didn’t want to listen to Satsuki’s lectures because he would have known how to counter Tetsu only on the court and not on the papers.

“Yes. That’s why I’m working on something new.”

“Really? What’s that?”

Kuroko got his attention. Aomine was staring at him in wait.

“You’ll see when Seirin will go against Touou.”

“Hey! You can’t leave me like that!”

“I can. We are rivals now.”

Aomine lost in a second all the glee and glared at the empty street they were walking through.

“I know it, but — ”

“Aomine-kun.” He started with lot of patience. “As you said when you were teaching me how to shoot, I have no talent in the first place…”

“Well, that’s true.”

“…so I need to hide my trump cards as long as I can. Like this I managed to defeat all of you.”

Kuroko added his last thought in an explosion of pride and defied Aomine with a fierce look.

“This year will be different.”

“I hope you’ll be ready to fight because I have no intention of losing, Aomine-kun.”

“Hah, that’s what I wanted to hear.” 

Their eyes were sparkling in a similar way.

“I’m going to make you cry again.”

“I didn’t cry!”

“I’m sure you did.”

Kuroko was just mocking him. He chuckled and became beautiful.  
The thought made Aomine blush. He stroked his eyes; he needed sleep.

“Nigou is sleepy.”

“So you were the one who wanted to take a stroll. Tetsu Nigou didn’t even went out from your coat.”

“Taking strolls on a piggy back ride is nice.”

Kuroko and Aomine looked at each other.

“Tetsu, don’t you even think about it.”

“I wasn’t thinking about it.”

“You were! I know you pretty well, you know?”

Kuroko chuckled again.

“That’s why we played so well together, Aomine-kun.” He hesitated a bit. “I’d like to play alongside with you once more.”

Aomine thought the same thing. He had been thinking it from the day he saw for the first time Kuroko supporting Kagami. He didn’t think about it every day but from time to time that thought popped out and the need burned him. He wanted to cry but was ashamed of it.

“We are rivals now.”

“We are also…” Kuroko wasn’t sure he wanted to talk more.

“Friends. Yeah yeah, I know!” Aomine broke the atmosphere and the embarrass by being embarrassed himself. “Street basketball is okay.”

Aomine deep inside was so pure and simple that Kuroko found his mask of coolness quite ridicule. But beyond it, even if Aomine grew up, his old self was back.

“I’m glad you are happy again.”

Since when they had been saying all those embarrassing things?

Neither of them had the time to think about it. Nigou jumped out from Kuroko’s coat and run away without a reason. Again.

“Nigou!”

Kuroko run first but Aomine overcame him in a few strides. His legs were long and strong, Aomine was fast and talented. Kuroko was aware that inside the admiration he had for him, which never faded away, were hidden a deep frustration and a great envy. He was short, slow and lacked of stamina while Aomine was everything Kuroko always had wanted to be. And he even failed as a supporter. How much a new technique would have worked against his talent before Aomine had found a way to counter it?

Kuroko’s eyes looked at Aomine’s back without seeing it. Then the world went upside down and Kuroko felt the void and the harsh hardness of the soil.  
He realized he fell down when he was staring at the sky while trembling in pain.

“Tetsu!”

Even Nigou — why did he jumped away like that? — came back and whined.

“The ankle.”

Coach would have killed him. Hyuuga would have killed him. The rest of the team would have tried to stop them hopefully.

All Kuroko was able to think about was when he would have healed.

“I can’t play basketball like this.” He pouted.

“Tetsu, you never change.” Aomine helped him to stand again. “Can you walk?”

“I can’t.”

“You didn’t even try.”

“I know my body, Aomine-kun.”

Kuroko looked at him. Intensely. Aomine wondered if his eyes had always been that wide, that sparkling, that cute. No no no. Not cute. Just… well cute. And a bit sad. He seemed like a puppy. And he had the same eyes as Nigou’s —  who was giving him the same look. The cuteness intensified and Aomine felt the need to see some pictures of Horikita Mai just to check if his tastes changed in one evening.

“No way Tetsu. This time your trick won’t work.”

Aomine firmly faced them.

However, when Tetsuya’s grandmother opened the door, she saw her dear grandson piggybacking onto that tall friend from Middle School Tetsuya often talked about.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing fluff is difficult. I'm always afraid the characters are OOC. But it happens when I don't write fluff too.


End file.
